Vintage drawing of a pair of duckwing game birds. These birds are one of the English game bantams. As you can see, they stand quite tall. They also come in a wide variety of colorations. Their combs are generally bright red and their legs are either white or blue. This pair was unfortunately drawn in shades of gray and white as printing in color was extremely expensive in the late 1800s. In fact, most colored book plates were watercolors. It might be hard to colorize this bird image but it is in the public domain so do with it what you will.
It is so much fun finding vintage books full of wonderful illustrations. Thomas E. Hill’s 1882 work Hill’s Album of Biography and Art provided over 200 drawings for this site.
This image is copyright free and in the public domain anywhere that extends copyrights 70 years after death or at least 120 years after publication when the original illustrator is unknown.
